


you're a walking dream, baby

by mini_rini



Series: don't dream it's over [1]
Category: Highlight | Beast (Band), Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, CUBE United show up lmao, M/M, Minor Lee Howon | Hoya/Lee Sungjong, rated teen for woohyun's potty mouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-11-14 02:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11198160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mini_rini/pseuds/mini_rini
Summary: it's woohyun's first dream, and ironically, he'd never dreamed that it would turn out this way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: you have to buy dreams to be able to dream at night
> 
> i wanted to write a wooyeol meet-cute in an eccentric little teashop but this evolved into something completely different im sorry

classes end late, and woohyun finds himself rushing to the teashop at which he works part-time. he bursts in a minute before his shift is due to start, dashing into the back to get changed. he murmurs a greeting to their manager, sunggyu, who is hunched over tomes and tomes of ancient recipe books, before he goes to relieve an increasingly stormy-looking myungsoo from counter duty.

 

the teashop,  _ infinite infusions _ , specialises in magic teas, all “formulated by hand using special herbs and spices,” as it reads on the shop window. the teas relieve various aches and pains and allows the drinker to experience emotions that they covet. dongwoo and howon are their tea-makers and have been so for a long time. both of them are magic users and are extraordinarily talented. dongwoo could probably have been working for the government, formulating dream potions and the like, but here he is instead in this little teashop, working with the likes of myungsoo who seems to attract tea spills like some kind of broody tea-magnet.

 

try as he might, woohyun is still unable to get myungsoo to crack a smile at his direction, and no matter how much dongwoo and howon try to reassure him that myungsoo is just shy towards people he doesn’t know well yet, it still stings when his attempts to connect with the taller boy are brushed off in favour of myungsoo clinging to dongwoo during lulls in business. woohyun doesn’t quite understand why, but he prefers not to question it, especially when the nature of him getting hired was still a mystery to him.

 

around three months ago, he’d been strangely compelled to walk in the opposite direction from where he usually did when he walked home from university. he’d obediently followed the tug in his gut, knowing better than to mess with his intuition. he kept walking long past the shopfronts changed and he became unfamiliar with his surroundings. just before he resolved to call it quits and backtrack, he came to a stop in front of a quaint little tea shop with a weathered sign proclaiming that  _ infinite infusions is OPEN, please come in! _ and below that, a notice announcing that they were hiring.

 

when he pushed the door open, he faintly heard a voice saying, “yup, that’s him,” before a man about the same height as he was was bounding towards him. “hi!” the guy chirped. “i take it that you’re here for the job, aren’t you?” woohyun found himself nodding before he could think twice, spurred on by the guy - dongwoo, said his nametag - and his bubbly nature.

 

he was ushered into the back office, where a hamster-looking man regarded him solemnly for a few seconds before asking his name and then patting him on the shoulder, giving him the job almost immediately. woohyun was floored at how slapdash the “interview” had been, but money was money, and soon enough he was working at  _ infinite infusions _ like he had always belonged there.

 

“woohyun-ah! can you grab the rosemary from the store? i’ve just run out,” howon yells. “i’m on it,” he calls, already ducking into the back room to retrieve the herb. when he reemerges, he sees sungjong at the counter, chatting to myungsoo while waiting for howon to make his tea. woohyun conceals his smirk as he trots over to howon’s workstation and handing him the spring without so much as a wink or a nudge. howon still frowns heavily at him, hissing a sharp warning to  _ not make him look stupid in front of sungjongie, goddammit. _ woohyun only snickers. leave it to howon to still get embarrassed when his boyfriend visits him at work.

 

he’s still laughing at howon’s expression as he walks backwards while twirling a wet rag, and therefore doesn’t see myungsoo, who is carrying a tall glass of iced tea. they collide, myungsoo stumbling and upending the glass onto a customer.

 

the shop falls silent at the customer’s unholy screech and woohyun’s subsequent unending stream of apologies. he hurriedly shoves an unresponsive myungsoo out of the way before snatching a pile of napkins and rubbing down the customer’s front. howon and dongwoo are nowhere to be seen, probably having ducked down underneath the prep counter to laugh freely.

 

myungsoo remains rooted to the spot throughout the chaos, gaze transfixed on the door to the back room. he is therefore the first one to realise when sunggyu emerges from the gloomy depths like the harbinger of bad fortune, and he is as such the only one of them spared from the shorter man’s glare of doom.

 

“would someone like to tell me what’s going on?”

 

woohyun freezes at sunggyu’s chilling tone, ready to spit excuses much like when his mother catches him doing things he shouldn’t be doing. his mouth is already open, but before he can say anything, a voice cuts across his. “i’m very sorry sir, i wasn’t watching where i was going. i’ll cover the cost of that drink, don’t worry.”

 

woohyun had tensed when the customer spoke; his voice was oddly familiar, as if woohyun had heard it before in passing. when the customer had offered to cover the cost without being prompted, woohyun’s head snapped around. just who  _ was _ this guy, stepping in and saving his ass so suavely like that?!

 

his jaw drops. who  _ is _ this guy indeed, he thinks wryly to himself, because standing in front of him is the guy of his dreams, down to the cute baby hairs on his hairline.

 

what the  _ fu _ ck?

 

 

 

 

now, let’s return to where woohyun’s woes first began.

 

in this world, nobody is able to dream unless they purchase vials of dream potions. woohyun, being the only child of average office workers, has never dreamed. his parents are too poor to purchase these unassuming vials of potent liquids, and to be honest, woohyun himself doesn’t see their allure. better men than him have fallen prey to their addictive nature, and woohyun knows enough about the magical world than to try the illegal substitutes being sold on the streets.

 

he can’t deny that he  _ does _ wonder sometimes, but he doesn’t care enough to try for himself, preferring to instead focus on his job at the teashop and on earning a little more to perhaps be able to buy the dress that he knows his mother secretly eyes in the shop they pass every saturday on the way home from the market.

 

****

 

when woohyun is nineteen, he receives a remarkably smaller gift from his parents than in past years. he side-eyes his parents; were they skimping on his present this year? but his parents’ faces are only alight with anticipation and poorly concealed glee. the wrapped box is small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, and when he shakes it it makes a sloshing sound. when he unwraps the present, his breath catches. nestled in pink tissue is a small vial of colourless liquid, and he has pressed his face to the glass window of  _ DreamBig _ to know it for exactly what it is.

 

he turns to his parents in wonder, but before he can open his mouth to voice his mandatory protests, his mother cuts in with an indulgent smile. “it wasn’t a problem, hyun-ah. you’ve worked so hard for all these years, relax a little! kibum’s mother and i went down to the shop last weekend to pick a potion out for you, so make sure you enjoy it,” she threatens teasingly.

 

he hugs and thanks his parents absentmindedly, focus already directed towards the small vial clutched in his hand. when he enters his bedroom, he places it on his desk before taking two steps back to gaze at it. the bottle seems to glow with secrets; unimaginable wonders and untold pleasure that he has quietly coveted since he was old enough to desire things of his own.

 

_ soulmate _ , reads the label on the cap. woohyun briefly wonders what it means and why his and kibum’s mothers chose it, but his curiosity about the name is overpowered by his need to discover the effects of its contents. despite knowing that the midday sun is still high above his head, woohyun uncaps the bottle and tips its contents down his throat.

 

it tastes like nothing and everything all at once, like he’s downed one of howon’s hangover brews. his eyelids droop abruptly, vision blurring, and he has just enough time to stumble to his bed and collapse upon it before sleep overtakes him.

 

a boy’s face is the first thing woohyun sees when his dream self opens his eyes. eyeliner bolds the edges of his eyes, emphasising the jut of his cheekbones and lending a fierceness to a face which would otherwise have looked meek. dream-woohyun’s breath catches. he knows that he had always been as attracted to guys as he was to girls, but as horribly clichéd as it was, this boy was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

 

if woohyun wasn’t afraid of drawing the boy’s attention, he would have laughed at the situation his dream self was experiencing. it would be just his luck to encounter someone so attractive only in his dreams, he notes wryly to himself. kibum would laugh his ass off when he found out.

 

the boy doesn’t seem to have noticed him yet, so woohyun takes the chance to further observe him. he is lanky, but he moves without the sinuous grace that woohyun was used to seeing (and envying) in those well endowed in height. he seemed to be around the same age as woohyun, and as woohyun steps forward, he turns, catching sight of woohyun.

 

woohyun smiles on reflex, raising a hand in greeting, and the boy’s eyes widen. he slips into a shallow bow, eyes curving into crescents and  _ wow _ those are some fucking beautiful teeth. dream-woohyun seems to want to say something, his mouth opening and voice almost slipping through before-

 

he wakes up. what the fuck? just his shitty, shitty luck. and right before he’d gotten to hear what dream-woohyun so badly wanted to say to that guy as well!

 

a quick glance at the clock on his bedside table tells him that barely two hours has passed, so he grabs his cellphone, dialling kibum’s number. it takes two tries before his best friend picks up and woohyun is greeted by an irate, “what the fuck do you want i’m busy.”

 

“sup kibum, long time no talk. do you not have time for your bestie now that you’re off making big bucks in the big city?” teases woohyun. kibum had recently been selected to become one of the government’s potion makers. he would eventually become part of the organisation who came up with ideas to formulate the dream potions. woohyun hadn’t seen him ever since he left their town - the government was notoriously stingy with their workers’ home visits. old mrs. eiko hadn’t seen her son since he left five years ago. all that was allowed were regular phone calls back home.

 

“kibum you don’t get it! is this why people drain their life savings away? what the fuck? the dream ended on a literal cliffhanger. i want my money back.” 

 

on the other end, kibum was laughing so hard he snorted and choked on his own spit. “are you fucking serious? it ended just like that? woohyun, i hate to tell you this but…” he trailed off, snickers still echoing down the line.

 

“but what?! don’t you fucking leave me on a cliffhanger as well, dickwad,” woohyun half-yells, half-whispers. after all, he can’t have his parents hearing his potty mouth and barging in to shout at him as well.

 

“you have shit luck, m’dude. dream makers are told to make the dream as complete as possible so that people have maximum satisfaction when they wake up. keeps them feeling friendly towards the government, you know.”

 

woohyun groans. “i can’t believe this. do you think they’ll give me a refund if i go over to  _ DreamBig _ and tell them about this?” kibum laughs. “woohyun, are you stupid? do you think they’ll believe you? just get over it, man, and accept that you’re just not cut out for dreaming.”

 

woohyun sighs. “okay, whatever.”

 

“don’t sound so down about it dude. what was the dream even called?”

 

“huh….come to think of it, i can’t remember. hold on,” woohyun says as he gets up to retrieve the bottle. it isn’t on his desk nor on his bedside table, so he gets down to his knees to check underneath the bed. “ah-ha i’ve found it!” he cheers, snatching the bottle from where it had rolled under the bed.

 

“soulmate,” he reads out loud. over the phone, kibum’s chatter abruptly stops. “say it again,” he says.

 

“the label says soulmate. what’s wrong with that?” woohyun replies, becoming slightly wary of his best friend’s sudden silence.

 

the quiet drags on for a few seconds before kibum chirpily brushes it off with a, “nothing’s wrong, woohyun! i was just thinking about whether i had a hand in helping produce the bases for that particular set.”

 

woohyun frowns. “okay, if you’re sure.”

 

“uh-huh, i am. listen, i’ve got to go, so say hi to mom for me? both mine and yours, in case you were thinking of slacking off. tell her i can’t call tonight because i’ve got some urgent work to do. see ya!”

 

the line clicks before woohyun can say his own goodbyes, and he stares at his phone confusedly before shrugging and heading downstairs to pass on kibum’s message to his mother and mrs. kim, who lived just across the street.

 

he hadn’t thought anything of the dream and kibum’s abrupt departure until that occurrence the next day.

 

****

 

as soon as his shift ended, he raced home, barely pausing to shuck his shoes at the doorway before running up the stairs and flopping on the bed. he dials kibum with shaking hands, praying for his friend to pick up as soon as possible.

 

_ click  _ “sup dude?” 

 

at the sound of kibum’s cheerful voice, something in woohyun loosens. “you won’t believe what happened today,” he says into the phone.

 

two minutes later, he regrets thinking anything good about kibum at all. “you don’t get it, dumbass! this guy was literally the same guy from my dream - everything about him was the same and i spilled tea all over him and rubbed his shirt like some crazy guy oh god he’s going to remember me as that klutz who put his paws all over him i’m going to die in a hole now kibum i can’t do this.”

 

“are you actually for real, bro?” kibum is laughing too hard to speak and woohyun is grimly reminded of the day before, when they were in almost the same positions as they are now.

 

“it’s  _ true _ , man! this isn’t some kind of shit that just happens, dude, it was literally the same guy!” kibum is wheezing by now. “are you sure that wasn’t just  _ in your dreams _ , bro?”

 

woohyun is quiet for a moment, lost in his disbelief that kibum had actually tried to make a pun out of the situation. on the other side, kibum is laughing even harder at his silence. “ya sure it wasn’t magic mushrooms, woohyun? maybe that  _ dream _ y guy you saw was just a hallucination.”

 

“fuck off dude, it wasn’t any of the weird shit that you like taking or anything, dickhead, he was fucking real. i touched him.” as that sentence leaves woohyun’s mouth, he is immediately regretting it. “wait, i didn’t-”

 

“ohoo, so now we’re moving on to molestation now, are we? sounds like something that would only happen-”

 

“okay okay okay i get it! shut up! my mom’s calling me for dinner, so i have to go. i just wanted to tell you about that, because i thought you’d know something about it. don’t forget to eat, okay? text me later, bye!”

 

a click signals the end of the call, and on the other side of the line, kibum sighs, pulling out a notepad and pen. he writes,  _ to ask - w. soulmate??? real life meeting _

 

****

 

the next day, woohyun enters the teashop with great trepidation. dongwoo greets him with a smile, the same as usual, and howon and myungsoo with curt nods. of course, none of them knew about what happened yesterday; they’d only known that woohyun had caused the spill and the customer had paid for it, brushing off woohyun’s protests. sunggyu hadn’t been happy, but there wasn’t really anything he could bluster about since the customer had been so gracious as to cover the cost of the spilt drink. he’d left without ordering anything afterwards, and woohyun had returned to work far meeker than he had been when he’d started.

 

his shift proceeds as normal, with sungjong coming in at around five to bother his boyfriend. sungjong takes one look at woohyun and catches him around the neck as he comes back from serving a customer, forcefully plopping him down on one of the barstools that lined the counter.

 

“what’s going on, hyung? you’ve seemed really down today,” said the younger boy, staring accusingly at woohyun.

 

“nothing’s wrong, i’m just a little tired today,” woohyun attempts to deflect. unfortunately, dongwoo and howon had also come out from behind their prep counter and were crowding around him, eager to find out the reason behind their coworker’s drastically altered mood. now with more support, sungjong stares him down with a smirk on his pretty face. “that’s bullshit and you know it, hyung.”

 

woohyun caves. “okay fine, i’ll tell you about it after we close for today. it’s not a big deal, it’s just something weird that happened to me yesterday.”

 

his words were interrupted by someone clearing their throat from behind them. “i’m sorry, but can i please have my order taken?” said a very familiar voice.

 

woohyun stiffens. “oh! of course, we’re so sorry,” gushed dongwoo, already moving to take the customer’s order. it gives woohyun plenty of time to galvanise his frozen muscles into moving and finally catching a glimpse of the customer to confirm his suspicions. and lo and behold, it was the same guy from yesterday, the one from woohyun’s dreams that he had shamed himself in front of.

 

“...name?” he vaguely heard dongwoo asking.

 

“lee sungyeol,” the customer replied. woohyun gulps. there is now a name that he can put to the face. the customer, no - sungyeol now - turned, catching his eye and smiling.

 

“hey, you’re that guy from yesterday, aren’t you? what’s your name?”

 

“w-woohyun, nam woohyun. it’s nice to meet you; i’m sorry about yesterday!” woohyun yelped, body already moving into a ninety-degree bow.

 

“no, no, don’t worry about it! it was an honest mistake,” sungyeol says, rushing to reassure him. woohyun raises his head too quickly and bangs his skull against sungyeol’s chin, who in turn bites his tongue and howls in pain, hopping on the spot.

 

“i’m so sorry!” yells woohyun, frantically grabbing sungyeol’s head and opening his mouth to stare at his tongue. “fuck, it’s bleeding! hold on, i’m going to get you some ice and a paper towel.”

 

as he disappears into the back, sungjong and howon, who had insofar been holding back their laughter, collapse on the floor, nearly crying with how hard they were laughing. dongwoo has ducked below his station to laugh openly (what a feeling of deja-vu) and even sungyeol has seen the funny side of things, leaning against the counter to laugh while cupping his jaw.

 

by the time woohyun reappears with the supplies, all of them have collected themselves and regained some semblance of normalcy. woohyun regards all of them suspiciously but doesn’t pause for too long, instead heading towards sungyeol and handing him the ice. howon takes over counter duty while woohyun fusses over sungyeol, and business proceeds much like normal until sungyeol leaves with a promise to visit again in better circumstances and a cute wave at woohyun.

 

the second the door closes behind the tall boy’s back, woohyun sags against the counter and groans. dongwoo comes over, taking advantage of a momentary lull in customers to find out what the two of them discussed. “well, have you gotten his number yet?!”

 

woohyun glares up at him. “no way, hyung, who do you think i am? we just talked for a while. that’s it. he’s not even interested in me, or guys, for that matter.”

 

sungjong snickers. “my ass he isn’t. if you hadn’t been so busy gaping at him like a fish you’d have realised that he could see your nametag from miles away and was just asking so that he could make conversation, stupid.”

 

howon nods in agreement, but honestly, sungjong could have said that he ate ass for a living and howon would still agree with him, so woohyun chooses to ignore the both of them and groans at his pitiful life.

 

“all this wouldn’t have happened and i wouldn’t have shamed myself for the second time if myungsoo, that brat, had come to work today!”

 

myungsoo, who is at home tending to a sore knee, sneezes. “must be someone at work cursing my absence, huh?” he tells his cat, who meows in agreement.

 

****

 

when their shifts have ended and the shop is closed for the night, all of them traipse to a nearby fast food joint to hear woohyun’s promised story. the place is deserted, and the only noises to be heard are the beeping of the slushie machine and woohyun’s hushed voice as he tells the other four (sunggyu had been forced to tag along as well) about his dream and the two meetings with lee sungyeol.

 

after he ends, there is complete silence from the group. howon is the first to speak, scratching his head and muttering, “i’ve never heard of a situation like this before, not even the part about the dream ending so abruptly.” sunggyu nods sagely, fingers already tapping search terms into his phone.

 

after that, the table falls into quiet discussion, all of them putting forth possible reasons for woohyun’s current plight, but none of them dare to voice the most obvious (yet impossible) reason of all.

 

“do you guys think it’s real, then?” myungsoo pipes up when the table finally falls silent. howon grabs him in a headlock and gives him a noogie, grumbling under his breath about inattentive youth nowadays.

 

myungsoo yelps and struggles free, exclaiming, “not about woohyun-hyung’s dream! i was talking about the label on the bottle.” he turns towards woohyun, who starts nervously under his dongsaeng’s eyes. “it  _ did _ say soulmate, didn’t it hyung?”

 

when woohyun nods, myungsoo turns back to the rest of them. “so if the dream was called soulmate, wouldn’t it make sense for him to have dreamed of his soulmate?”

 

a hush falls over the table at myungsoo’s implication. in their world, soulmates were found few and far between, and since they were so rare, it was almost certain that if they were found by the government, they would be hauled in for a multitude of tests and experiments.

 

woohyun was not a stranger to the concept of soulmates - he had lain awake many a night listening to kibum’s hushed rants about a new soulmate couple that had been taken in for “questioning.” he hadn’t dared ask for the details, and kibum hadn’t offered any.

 

sungjong snorts. “if that’s the case, hyung, you really would be star-crossed lovers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr @ kuroophyll !!
> 
> comments, kudos are always greatly appreciated :-)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which sungyeol discovers the way to woohyun's heart (hint: they're bad puns) and promptly proceeds to break it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im...sorry in advance??

come mid-april, when the air has warmed slightly and the birds have found it in them to start up their chirping, sungyeol finds himself a regular patron of  _ infinite infusions _ . all of the workers know him by name, and his customary drink, a black tea with rose infusion, is placed in his hand before he can even reach into his back pocket to scrabble for spare change as a tip. it’s nice, he supposes, to be able to interact freely with people whom he liked, and who liked him back.

 

there is, he has to admit, an ulterior motive to him visiting the teashop so regularly. one of the waiters, who had inadvertently spilled tea on him the first time they’d met, had caught his eye. however, after that occurrence, woohyun had been painfully shy, hardly daring to meet his eyes. his behaviour towards sungyeol was a far cry from how he acted around his colleagues, and sungyeol had desperately been trying to change that. he’d make it a point to seek woohyun out every time he visited, stopping to chat to the shorter boy when there weren’t any customers around, and slowly but surely, woohyun began to thaw towards his advances.

 

****

 

“woohyun-ah!” dongwoo shouts from the back room. “can you make a note to get some more jasmine petals the next time you go to jiae’s?”

 

“i’ve got it,” woohyun calls back. he tears out a page in his notebook he keeps under the counter specially for these impromptu reminders from dongwoo and squats, hurriedly scribbling down his request. they’d been having an extended rush period for god knows what reason, but woohyun was knackered and more than ready for his shift to end.

 

myungsoo’s foot appears in his peripheral vision, and before woohyun can dodge, myungsoo has landed a solid kick on his rear end. “loverboy’s here,” he hisses. “get up!”

 

woohyun scrambles up and smooths down his hair, attempting to look presentable. all thoughts of squabbling with myungsoo have disappeared, only to be replaced with budding insecurities about his looks.

 

“morning, woohyun,” sungyeol greets brightly as he saunters closer to the counter. “can i get something different today?”

 

woohyun flushes, as he always does when sungyeol engages him in any sort of conversation. you’d think that after more than two months following myungsoo’s revelation of them being possible soulmates, woohyun would have regained some of his former suave behaviour, but unfortunately, he seemed to have permanently been reduced to a gibbering mess.

 

“w-what would you like, then?” he asks, internally cursing his slight stutter.

 

sungyeol smirks. “oh, give me something of the finest quali- _ tea _ ,” he says, delivering a smooth wink as the cherry on top of the atrocious pun he’d just made.

 

woohyun explodes. any embarrassment he had been facing is gone, replaced by a feeling of extreme disgust which only a good pun - usually made by kibum - could warrant.

 

“what the actual  _ fuck _ , dude, did you just say that?!” he all but yells, poking a finger into sungyeol’s (surprisingly muscular) chest. “are you fucking for real??” hidden beneath the counter, myungsoo is doing his best to conceal his laughter, both at sungyeol’s pun and woohyun’s reaction. they got on surprisingly well, the both of them, and half of the reason why was most likely to do with their shared love of puns.

 

sungyeol grins challengingly. “why, are you worried that i’m  _ tea _ -sing you?”

 

myungsoo finally bursts into laughter at woohyun’s wounded howl, and sungyeol smiles to himself in great satisfaction. myungsoo had been right when he’d asked him for the easiest way to make woohyun lose his shyness around him. when he glances up at his friend, myungsoo sends him a secret wink, boyish grin still playing about his face.

 

****

 

weeks pass, and sungyeol returns to the shop almost every day. he and sungjong have struck up a dubious sort of camaraderie, and they often gang up to bother myungsoo while he works. sungyeol has also taken to flirting with woohyun at every chance he can get, making woohyun splutter and on one memorable occasion, trip over his own feet.

 

howon silently observes their interactions from the back of the shop, quietly skeptical of the sudden blossoming of their relationship. woohyun is now rarely ever seen without sungyeol as his shadow, and although the boy does seem to be happier than ever before, howon can’t help but hold his reservations close. he’d spoken to dongwoo about it, unable to keep his concerns to himself, and was reassured by his best friend feeling the same way.

 

****

 

when sungyeol had first become a regular at the shop, woohyun had called kibum in a panic.

 

“kibum, what the fuck am i doing?! i dreamed about this guy and now he’s here and he’s trying to get to know me,” he babbled.

 

on the other side of the line, kibum was uncharacteristically silent.

 

“hello?? kibum, are you there? don’t ignore me, dude, i’m in the middle of a crisis here.”

 

despite himself, kibum snorts. “sorry man, i was just a little preoccupied, don’t worry about it. but anyway, sounds like this guy realised that my best friend is a hot piece of ass and he wants some of it.”

 

“no, dude, i’m actually serious. he’s been flirting with me and shit and coming to the shop almost every day,” woohyun half-yelled.

 

kibum hums. “sounds a bit creepy. is he pret- _ tea _ enough to be a 10?”

 

“of-fucking- _ course _ he’s a 10! if he’d asked to bang me in the shop i’d be bending over before dongwoo could scream blue murder. and stop it with your tea puns man, i’m getting enough of them from sungyeol.”

 

“dude if he’s a 10 he can get on with it man, i’m not even going to stand in your way. just make sure his moves are of the finest quali- _ tea _ , hey? and if they aren’t up to par, check his warran- _ tea _ is valid and return his scrawny ass.” by this point, both of them are laughing too hard to say anything else.

 

after a solid minute of laughter, woohyun calms down but is set off by another snort from kibum. woohyun’s mother pauses outside the door, hearing her son howling from inside his room, but decides it was best not to interrupt.

 

once kibum has ended the call, he grabs a battered notebook from underneath his mattress and performs an unlocking seal on it. he flips it open and writes,  _ w. soulmate - mutual connection, but why? _

 

****

 

after work, only dongwoo and woohyun are left in the shop, myungsoo having called off sick that day and howon gone early on a date with sungjong. dongwoo is stacking tea boxes against the sill when he hears a meek, “dongwoo-hyung, can i talk to you for a second?”

 

woohyun’s voice is oddly subdued for the normally exuberant boy, and he could guess what had caused the change. all the private discussions he’d had with howon comes to mind, but he keeps his thoughts to himself for the moment, instead offering a friendly, “sure, what’s up?” 

 

“hyung, i’m not sure if you know this, but i have some minor magic. Sight, as it were, although mine is more of a gut feeling rather than visions.” dongwoo nods, remembering how that same magic had led woohyun to find  _ infinite infusions _ when they’d been looking for a new worker.

 

“recently i’ve noticed that if i concentrate, i can tell where sungyeol is going to be. it helps if he’s closer to where i am, but even now, i have a vague knowledge of his location. what do i  _ do _ , hyung? he doesn’t even know that we’re soulmates.” woohyun’s voice trails off in a whisper, and dongwoo can see that this knowledge has been bothering him for some time.

 

the older boy knows that he can only provide comfort and reassurance, his actual knowledge about the subject sorely lacking. scientific literature about soulmates was hard to come by, given their government’s propensity for stealing soulmates away and doing unspeakable things to them, and nobody whom he knew was forthcoming when he pressed them for information. all in all, his private investigations with howon revealed limited information, but it did put them in contact with people who were equally as leery as them about the government and any sort of soulmate business.

 

“woohyun-ah, i think it may be time - if you’re comfortable with it, of course! - to tell sungyeol-ssi about how you dreamed of him, and how you think he might be your soulmate. it would explain how your magic is also drawn to him.”

 

woohyun is quiet for a while after hearing this, eventually nodding thoughtfully. “what do i do if he rejects me?”

 

dongwoo smiles sadly. “then it appears that he wouldn’t have been your soulmate after all, and the potion that you took was flawed.”

 

****

 

when sungyeol comes in the next day, woohyun is already calling out the order for his tea. sungyeol beams at him, clearly touched by his foresight. when woohyun hands his cup over, he leans over to sungyeol, saying, “can we go out after my shift is over?”

 

sungyeol nods. “it ends in an hour, right? i’ll wait here until then.”

 

the hour seemed to fly by. usually, when woohyun worked the evening shift, the minutes crept by as if they were tired men with lead weights attached to their ankles, but this time, it felt like hardly fifteen minutes had passed when myungsoo came in for his shift replacing woohyun.

 

as woohyun exits the back room changed into his usual outdoor clothes, dongwoo snags his sleeve. “woohyun-ah, good luck! text me if you need anyone to talk to, okay?”

 

woohyun glances questioningly at the shorter boy, wondering how he had managed to overhear woohyun and sungyeol’s hushed exchange earlier. dongwoo simply jerked his head with a smile towards howon, who was bent over a cup of tea leaves. ah, howon-hyung did have that special Sight magic after all, huh.

 

resolving to ask his hyung about it on another day, he hurries towards sungyeol, who gets up when he sees woohyun approaching.

 

“are you hungry?” sungyeol asks immediately, before woohyun even has the chance to greet him. “i know this place that serves great jjigae.”

 

****

 

“woah, that was so good! i’m stuffed,” woohyun exclaims, one arm draped over the chair beside him and the other massaging his stomach.

 

“i’ll get the bill and then we can walk back to your place, okay?” sungyeol says, already handing over money to the waitress. woohyun snorts internally.  _ what a sneaky guy, paying for the both of us like that _ . a wry voice that sounds suspiciously like kibum points out that his weak point is, in fact, people taking the initiative to pay for their and woohyun’s meal, but woohyun resolutely ignores it, instead punching sungyeol’s arm lightly and complaining about him paying the bill so flippantly.

 

sungyeol brushes his protests off in favour of grabbing woohyun’s hand and pulling him towards the nearest convenience store. “it’s what people do when they’re on a date with the person they like, right?” he says nonchalantly, like woohyun hasn’t just spent the past month of his life worrying about the status of their relationship and debating whether or not to come clean about his feelings for sungyeol.

 

he wrenches his wrist away from sungyeol’s warm grip, his hand already missing the heat from the other boy’s hand. “what did you just say?!”

 

his voice comes out as slightly hysterical, but honestly, woohyun thinks that a little bit of “nam-crazy,” as kibum calls it, is completely understandable. after all, how often does one’s  _ soulmate _ flippantly declare their feelings for you?

 

sungyeol still has the gall to look confused. “what do you mean? i just said that i liked you. a lot, if i’m honest.” his eyes are wide and trusting, finding woohyun’s and locking on them. “i didn’t expect myself to fall for you so much and so quickly, but there you are. those are my true feelings for you, so please accept them.”

 

he breaks their eye contact to move into a bow, but woohyun stops him hurriedly. “s-sungyeol, i might have something to tell you as well.”

 

they relocate to a nearby park bench, where woohyun tremulously begins his confession.

 

when he ends his story, his hands are clenched into fists, nails biting into his palms. sungyeol looks…. looks like he’s on the verge of something, but woohyun can’t tell what it is. for the first time since they’d met, his internal gut feeling is silent, not revealing anything that woohyun can’t discern with his five senses alone.

 

he is startled from his thoughts when sungyeol reaches over and grabs his hands, smoothing his fists out and rubbing some warmth back into them. he doesn’t dare break the silence, so he sits there, frozen into his position as sungyeol goes about restoring feeling into his fingers.

 

“so you dreamed about me first, and then only after we’d become close you noticed that your magic could recognise where i was?” when sungyeol speaks, his voice is quiet, almost awestruck.

 

woohyun nods shakily. it had been harder than he’d imagined, coming clean to sungyeol about the true course of events and the depth of his feelings for the taller boy.

 

“may i kiss you, woohyun?” the question is asked almost abruptly, too loud for the whispers they’d previously been speaking in.

 

woohyun starts. at first it is because of sungyeol’s louder-than-expected tone, but then his request sinks in and woohyun’s eyes almost bug out. his mouth opens, but no reply is forthcoming. his brain is whirring at top speed, trying to compute sungyeol’s nervous query.

 

sungyeol looks down, embarrassed. “it’s fine if you don’t, you know, i won’t be offended or anything if you say no.”

 

woohyun is shocked into action when sungyeol says that, and predictably, his mouth runs away on him before his brain can catch up. he ends up almost-shouting, “what the fuck, dude, of  _ course _ i’d like to get some lip action with you, i mean, have you seen yourself? you’re a solid 10, man! but because of your ten outta ten rating, a guy’s gotta check if he ain’t dreaming, you know? plus you’re my soulmate, that’s extra special.”

 

sungyeol is watching woohyun’s sudden passionate outburst with amusement in his eyes, and when woohyun finally stops talking (spouting pointless drivel, kibum whispers), he gently grabs woohyun and kisses him full on the lips.

 

silence reigns for a long while until they become too cold to stand being outside any longer, which is when woohyun invites sungyeol to sleep over at his place. they traipse back with their hands intertwined, sungyeol holding on much tighter than woohyun is.

 

****

 

before they fall asleep, sungyeol wriggles around in woohyun’s embrace, tilting his head over towards the shorter boy.

 

“woohyun, can i have one last kiss?” he whispers into the darkness.

 

woohyun grumbles, having been shocked back from the brink of sleep. “huh, why? missing me already?” his voice sounds fondly teasing, and sungyeol’s heart aches at the familiarity behind his tone of voice.

 

“i just want to properly remember this,” sungyeol answers nonchalantly.  _ little do you know, the memory of you will be the only thing that can get me through the days, woohyun-ah. _

 

he memorises the feel of woohyun’s lips brushing against his own, and folds himself further into the boy’s arms, feeling himself becoming enveloped in his comforting scent.

 

that night, sungyeol doesn’t bother putting up his cheerful façade which greets the workers of  _ infinite infusions _ every morning, and cries himself to sleep.

 

woohyun lies as still as possible as to not alert sungyeol, his boyfriend, his  _ soulmate _ , of his feigned sleep. questions are racing through his mind.  _ why is he crying? have i done anything wrong? did he never want a soulmate after all, much less a soulmate like me? _

 

it is a long time before he too succumbs to sleep.

 

****

 

woohyun’s arm is warm around sungyeol’s stomach, and his embrace feels like home. it also feels like sungyeol’s heart is breaking into a million pieces as he gently extricates himself from the tangle of sheets and puts on his clothes robotically, like the machine he was made to be.

 

he leaves a note for woohyun, unable to bear the thought of his boyfriend, his  _ soulmate _ , never knowing the extent of his feelings for him.

 

it reads,  _ i would choose you again a million times over and more. i love you more than you could ever know, and i am so sorry. _

 

sungyeol shuts the bedroom door on his way out, the almost inaudible  _ click _ auguring the shattering of his own heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos, comments are all greatly appreciated!!
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr @ kuroophyll


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things are slowly heating up~~~
> 
> this chapter was churned out with extreme difficulty, hence the >2 week gap in publishing, but i hope you enjoy it anyway!!

woohyun wakes with a jerk from the tail end of something that would be called a nightmare, if people could dream freely. but woohyun doesn’t know that, never having experienced anything like it. all he knows is a split second of terror before his eyes are open and he is sitting bolt upright in bed, breathing hard. having never had anyone sleeping next to him before, he doesn’t initially take note of the extra pillow and blanket by his side, and it takes several moments of him yawning and rubbing at his eyes before his mind registers sungyeol coming home with him the night before and them falling asleep together.

when he processes the missing body by his side and the coldness of the sheets next to him, he comes awake completely. any traces of sleep leaves him as he dashes out of his room before even brushing his teeth, running downstairs to frantically question his mother about sungyeol.

she shakes her head confusedly when he asks her about the taller boy, saying, “i thought he was still upstairs with you. he hasn’t come down yet, and i’ve been here since an hour ago, woohyun-ah. maybe he left even earlier than that - the boy must have classes and the such too. don’t panic, dear, just call him and ask him where he went.”

placated, woohyun returns to his room and drops sungyeol a quick text asking him about his whereabouts before finally going to brush his teeth and get ready for his shift at the teashop. his phone buzzes with a message but it escapes his notice, humming as loudly as he is. after he’s done, he doesn’t check his phone, popping it into the front pocket of his backpack and making his way to the teashop. there is still a low level of fear bubbling in his gut, but woohyun chalks it down to the leftover panic from his rushed awakening that morning and doesn’t think too hard about it.

 

****

 

he is supposed to be helping howon with opening the shop today, and as he rounds the corner, he grins to himself. howon and sungjong are standing outside the door, bickering about which way to turn the key so that the magical wards that sunggyu set up wouldn’t sound. both of them haven’t noticed woohyun’s arrival yet, as absorbed in their argument as they are.

“it’s turn to the fucking  _ left _ , hyung, don’t be an imbecile,” sungjong snaps, but howon, who has a firm hold on the key, shakes his head adamantly. woohyun secretly agrees with howon, but for the sake of keeping his balls intact, doesn’t speak up. seeming to come to a decision, howon jams the key into the lock and twists right. woohyun braces himself for the alarm, but thankfully, it never comes. the door swings open with a creak and howon shoots sungjong a victorious smirk. the shorter boy is pouting visibly, and howon leans over to brush a kiss over his lips and ruffle his hair. 

woohyun’s unconcealed sound of disgust is what finally alerts the other two to his presence, and he flushes. “nobody wants to see you two do PDA, howon-hyung, sungjong-ah,” he says, dodging smartly as sungjong swings towards him with a practiced hand. “hurry up, let’s go in, we’ve got to clean the floors today, howon-hyung, and i’m not going to let you skive off doing that just because you don’t like mopping.”

the feeling in his gut is ignored in favour of completing his chores before they have to open for the day. the churning remains for the rest of his shift, but woohyun simply passes it off in his mind as a stomachache instead of anything to really worry about.

 

****

 

when his shift is over, woohyun goes into the back room to get changed and to check his phone for messages from sungyeol. what he gets instead makes him lose his grip on his phone, the device nearly slipping from his suddenly frozen fingers to the floor. dongwoo, coming in after him to grab more tea leaves, notices his abrupt change in posture and rushes to him.

“woohyun, are you feeling alright? did something happen to sungyeol? howon told me something like this might be happening soon, but since you didn’t say anything i assumed that it hadn’t yet come to pass.”

woohyun spins around to stare at dongwoo with accusing eyes. “hyung, you  _ knew _ ? and you didn’t say anything to me?”

dongwoo holds his hands out in front of himself placatingly. “woohyun-ah, howon only told me about it today, and he himself had only seen it in the leaves when he was at work with you just now. he considered telling you about what he’d seen himself, but you didn’t seem to have any problems with sungyeol just yet and howon worried about disrupting your, in his words, honeymoon bliss.”

woohyun can’t help but grin at that, calming down enough to recognise that his hyungs had merely been looking out for his best interests. he holds the phone out to dongwoo, showing him the message he’d received from sungyeol’s phone.

dongwoo hums thoughtfully, gazing at the last text sungyeol sent to woohyun. but before he can reply, myungsoo bursts into the room, exclaiming, “hyung, what’s taking so long?! the customers outside are getting antsy.” he stops short when he notices woohyun’s frozen expression and dongwoo holding woohyun’s phone with the stupid charm that sungyeol had gotten the shorter boy dangling off it, and slowly says, “okay, what’s happened that i don’t know about?”

they close early that day with sunggyu’s permission, dongwoo hissing “ _ soulmate _ emergency, hyung, it’s  _ urgent _ !” into the phone, and after they’ve filled myungsoo in with the details, woohyun dials sungyeol’s number. the dial tone rings two times in the quiet of the shop before there is a click. someone has picked up the phone. woohyun puts the call on loudspeaker before he leans forward and hesitantly says, “hello?”

there is nothing but silence on the other side for a few moments, the only thing woohyun can hear being dongwoo’s quick breaths and myungsoo’s steadier ones. then a foreign voice comes over the line. it says in a harsh whisper the same words that had been in the text message, “don’t bother contacting this number again, you won’t get an answer from who you want to answer,” before hanging up. woohyun presses call a second time, but a flat tone signals that the phone has been turned off.

woohyun feels as though everything is happening from a distance, him simply observing his body from afar. only myungsoo - who has somehow kept his calm through woohyun’s recounting of events - gently grabbing his shoulder and shaking can ground him to the present. his fingers are numb from how hard he has been clutching his phone, and his hands are shaking slightly. beside him, dongwoo is furiously texting someone, most probably howon, and he looks just as stunned as woohyun feels. myungsoo is a solid presence by his side, and he is the one to speak first.

“so what’s the plan?” he asks. woohyun jerks at the question, and dongwoo looks up from his phone.

at their silence, myungsoo raises his eyebrows. “what? we need to get sungyeol back from whoever it is that kidnapped him, and to do that we need a plan.” dongwoo and woohyun still look dumbstruck, staring at him with something that looks a lot like wonder, and myungsoo feels the need to add defensively, “it’s not like i  _ like _ you or anything, woohyun-hyung, but i’d like to have my pun partner-in-crime back here safe and sound and not chopped to bits because he met his soulmate or something.”

tension effectively broken, woohyun leans over to ruffle myungsoo’s “artfully tousled” hair but then freezes as the full gravity of the last part of myungsoo’s speech hits him. beside him, dongwoo is nodding somberly. “that’s something we must fully consider,” he says, tone grave.

woohyun turns to him, eyes desperate. “he  _ can’t _ have been taken, i would have felt something if he was being….harmed….” his voice trails off as he thinks about the bad feeling in his gut that he’d had since he’d woken up, and his eyes widen in alarm.

“what, did you feel something, woohyun-hyung?” myungsoo asks, picking up on woohyun’s distress.

woohyun places a hand over his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down before facing myungsoo. “yes, myungsoo-ah, i think sungyeol is in very big trouble indeed. i’ve felt something since this morning but i brushed it off as nothing to worry about.” here, woohyun’s voice cracks awkwardly as his throat closes with panic. “wha- what if it’s too late and i’ve fucked everything up because i was too dumb to realise sungyeol was hurting?”

he startles as dongwoo’s warm hand closes around his wrist and then settles as dongwoo’s thumb begins to stroke slow circles around his fluttering pulse. sungyeol had done the same thing as they’d walked home from the park last night. thinking about sungyeol makes woohyun’s nose clog and his heart clench, his throat choking up a little from the tears he wants so badly to let go, but he wills them back, silently promising himself to not cry before he found and brought sungyeol home.

 

****

 

having immigrated to the country as a child, woohyun remembers being pressured by his parents into learning the lay of the land as soon as possible. he had been around five at the time, and the month-long grueling boat journey had been difficult enough without his parents trying to cram as much information about the new country they were travelling to down his throat. his most vivid recollection of that time was barfing all over the map depicting the unique layout of the city they would be living in.

the first thing that had struck him later as a teenager was how oddly well-planned it had been. woohyun’s birth home had simply  _ grown _ , as most cities do, with streets winding every which way and buildings springing up wherever there was space to. this city was different - the government had taken over a circular plot of land smack dab in the middle of the city, and they had built a wall around their claimed area. woohyun had only been there once, when he’d first arrived in the country, and he had initially mistaken it for a prison faculty.

but otherwise, disregarding the surreality and mystery that was the government, the rest of the city functioned like any other city in the world. non-magic and magic users alike took up any job available to them, but magic users had the dubious advantage of taking up vocations that catered to their quirk, if of course, such a job even  _ existed _ in the first place.

the government area is heavily guarded, almost to the point of paranoia for a country in peacetime, and woohyun knows this from multiple chats he’s had with kibum ever since his friend had started working there. but knowing in theory and actually experiencing it for himself are two different things, and as he gazes up at the imposing grey wall in front of him, he can’t help but feel a frisson of fear lancing down his spine.

dongwoo nudges his side, leaning in to mutter under his breath, “so is sungyeol really in there?” woohyun takes a deep breath and focuses inwards, pinpointing the small part of his magic that has latched onto sungyeol.

_ where is he, _ he thinks to himself, scanning the area for sungyeol’s distinctive aura. once he has pinpointed sungyeol’s location, he turns to dongwoo and nods. “he’s definitely within the government compound, close to this wall.”

dongwoo opens his mouth to reply, but a sharp voice cuts into their conversation before he can. looking up, they see a guard glaring suspiciously down at them from the top of the wall.

“what are you boys doing here?” he snaps. “move along away from the perimeter if all you’re going to do is to loiter about.”

dongwoo lazily salutes him. “yessir, moving out now sir!”

the guard harrumphs and moves away, muttering under his breath about, “.... good-for-nothing youth whiling their lives away just like that….layabouts…..vagrants....”

woohyun and dongwoo exchange a glance filled with amusement before dongwoo whispers, “i think we really should go now that we’ve confirmed sungyeol is inside. we don’t want to make them think we’re up to something.”

 

****

 

woohyun thanks his lucky stars everyday for howon’s existence. after dongwoo had called him up and told him the whole story ending with them confirming that sungyeol was within the government compound, howon had simply told them to meet him at the teashop in an hour’s time. 

when dongwoo had asked him, “don’t we have to have a plan first?” howon had looked at him quizzically before replying, “we need to get sungyeol back, don’t we? i have friends who can help us with that.”

“is sungyeol really in there?” howon asks, his distinctive eyebrows set in a line. woohyun represses the strong urge to laugh despite the tense situation before replying solemnly, “yeah, i definitely felt him in there.”

if woohyun had said it in circumstances other than this, howon would have immediately retorted with a, “so that’s what you were doing last night, hmm?” but he refrains, humming thoughtfully before saying, “in that case, i know some people who can help.”

 

****

 

howon leads them down a seedy alleyway, footsteps sure and practiced like he’d walked the same route many times before. knowing howon, he probably had. they’d had to weave through a veritable warren of streets before ending up at this dead end, and woohyun had given up on memorising each street name as they passed, electing to just trust that howon didn’t want to kill them and leave their bodies somewhere they would never be found.

beside him, dongwoo huffs. “howonnie, are we there yet? my feet are starting to hurt.”

howon bristles at the nickname and hisses under his breath, “hyung! i told you to  _ never _ call me that! it's childish.”

dongwoo laughs and attempts to ruffle the indignant boy’s hair, but howon ducks under his hand and moves towards an unassuming door set deep into the wall of one of the buildings. woohyun hadn’t noticed it before howon raised a hand to tap at the weathered wood, and squinting closer, he can make out the slight shimmer of a spell put into place likely to deter those who weren’t welcome.

the door swings open silently, bringing with it a gust of foreign scents which make woohyun’s eyes water and dongwoo turn away to sneeze. howon seems completely unfazed by it though, and he steps in confidently. dongwoo and woohyun hurry to follow him, entering the shop in a rush only to stop, blinking at the unexpected scene laid in front of their eyes.

the shop, because that’s what it clearly is, isn’t big, maybe only the size of woohyun’s room at home. it’s crammed to the brim with knick knacks, little collectibles that are whirring on their own, and weapons. walls and walls of weapons, guns, knives, you name it, they probably had it. all of them were gleaming in the dim light of the shop, and a quick glance at dongwoo told woohyun that the older boy was just as dumbstruck as he was.

howon was laughing quietly with a taller boy with tired-looking eyes in the corner. when woohyun finally tears his gaze away from the display of wickedly sharp sabres, howon catches his eye and waves him over.

“doojoon, howon. howon, doojoon. he’s a combat magic user,” howon explains to woohyun. woohyun nods, eyeing the boy in front of him. he’s slightly taller than woohyun himself, he grudgingly admits, and has massive eyebags and prominent-looking cheekbones.

doojoon holds a hand out for woohyun to shake. “a pleasure to meet you,” he says. his voice is soft and calm, but woohyun has no doubt that it can easily change to harsh and threatening, especially given the use of his magic.

howon explains the situation to doojoon, who silently takes all the information in. when howon has stopped talking, he turns to woohyun.

“so you’re certain you felt him within the government compound?”

  
woohyun nods firmly. “without a shadow of a doubt. but i couldn’t tell you where exactly in the compound he is - i’ll have to be inside to do that.”

doojoon smirks. “that won’t be a problem.”

 

****

 

it turns out that doojoon works with three other guys, all of whom are offensive magic users, in a team they call BEAST. there is junhyung, a guy about the same height as doojoon with catlike eyes. his accuracy with a gun is partly fueled by magical ability, much like yoseob’s prowess with knives. in a fight, doojoon can predict to a certain degree his opponent’s next move, and people would never suspect kikwang, with his large doe-like eyes, of being able to phase through walls as easy as breathing. 

they have a score to settle with the government. a few years ago, howon tells them, there had been a kidnapping of a soulmate pair. their names were peniel and sungjae, and they were previously part of doojoon’s group of contacts. they had been taken into the government compound, putting up a fight all the way and killing several of their kidnappers, but two weeks later, one of BEAST’s moles had brought word that peniel and sungjae’s bodies had been discovered outside the government’s walls.

“their bodies were mangled almost beyond recognition,” howon says in a whisper. “i saw it myself.” he shudders and closes his eyes, and dongwoo scoots closer to him in silent support.

“when we went to get their bodies back, we found them with their hands still clasped together. which kind of sick bastard -- “ here, his voice breaks, and he turns to woohyun, eyes fierce. “woohyun-ah, i’m going to do all i can to make sure that you and sungyeol will never have to suffer the same fate as these two did. i swear it.”

woohyun swallows around a lump of cold fear in his throat before nodding. “i trust you, howon-hyung.”

 

****

 

the next day, doojoon meets them in front of the teashop. woohyun and howon had managed to take the day off, but dongwoo had had to go into work because there was nobody else to make the tea. myungsoo waves cheerily at them from inside the shop, but woohyun can only manage a tight smile in return.

doojoon, a manic gleam in his eye, announces that they will be visiting some local witches today to obtain several spells. woohyun thinks privately that if doojoon says anything any louder, they might be arrested before they even make it anywhere  _ near _ the government on their own.

they travel by bus this time, the witches living too far from the centre of the city to get there on foot. as it is, it takes almost two hours before doojoon stands, saying, “this is our stop.”

howon groans as he stands, bones popping. “hyung, did we really have to come this far out? it’s going to be nightfall by the time we make it home.”

doojoon levels him with a stern look. “these are the best spellmakers from this area, and they can be trusted. i’d rather travel a few more miles than die for want of a proper misdirection incantation.”

howon rolls his eyes but subsides, not wanting to challenge the more knowledgeable boy in his own expertise.

 

****

 

when he sees where they’re headed, woohyun has to smother his laughter. the witches, bomi and heechul, live in a stereotypical little rundown shack, and as doojoon cracks open the door, woohyun half-expects to see two little hags crouched beside a boiling cauldron. instead, he sees a sleepy-eyed girl, stirring two pots simultaneously while yelling over her shoulder at a slim guy balancing three books and a toad on his right hand and juggling what looks like a skull and an apple in the other.

the air is heavy with smoke and static, and the two people, presumably bomi and heechul, have yet to notice them. doojoon strides in, clearly at home, and taps bomi on the shoulder. she spins around, instantly on guard, but relaxes when she sees doojoon.

“what do you want this time, oppa?” she says with a put-upon sigh. “hey heechul-oppa, put that stuff down! doojoon-oppa’s back!”

the slim guy, heechul, drops everything unceremoniously onto the floor and bounds over. “doojoon! not that it isn’t great to see you, but who are those two behind you?” his eyes are sharp as he glances over howon and woohyun, and woohyun can see a small blade concealed in his right hand.

doojoon does all-round introductions, and bomi takes to woohyun instantly, chatting easily to him as she makes up some drinks for all of them. they sit around the witches’ least cluttered table and doojoon explains their situation and imminent break-in, bomi and heechul nodding intently.

when he finishes, heechul nods decisively, pulling out a small notepad. “you’ll need a couple of subterfuge spells, of course, to get you into the compound undetected. kikwang can phase into the walls and get you a visual of the inside first, so you might want to get him to gather intel one day before all of you go in, but i’m not sure whether they’ve got spells put into place to detect movement through the walls. that’s a risk you might want to take, but either way, you’ll also need some misdirection enchantments and concealment potions.”

he scribbles a few notes on the paper and stands up with a flourish. “now, wait here a second while bomi and i get it all together for you!”

 

****

 

the night before they break into the compound, woohyun finally musters up the courage to call kibum. he hadn’t been delaying speaking to his best friend on  _ purpose _ ; he trusted kibum implicitly and knew that he would never sell them out to any of the government officials, but something had kept him from telling kibum about any of it until they’d finalised the plans.

kibum picks up just before the call goes to voicemail, and hearing his cheerful voice calms something in woohyun, making his resolve firmer than before.

“‘sup, woohyunnie! long time no talk. what’s been happening in your life?” kibum asks chirpily.

a dam inside woohyun breaks, and everything comes spilling out. the whole tale, starting from the day they’d confessed to each other and ending with them visiting bomi and heechul, comes out in a whispered rush, words tumbling over each other. as difficult as it was to initially call kibum, once he’s started, woohyun can’t seem to stop talking. he tells kibum about how he’d heard sungyeol crying in bed that night, and his anxieties about his welfare trapped in the government compound.

kibum is silent after woohyun has finished speaking. he had asked his superior officer about the manner with which woohyun had found his soulmate, and the older man had been evasive, doing his best to throw kibum off the whole topic in general. he had done some snooping about of his own, but had yet to find any information worth anything. they kept their secrets close, it seemed, and kibum couldn’t make his research any more obvious than it already was for fear of being discovered.

  
after woohyun hangs up, kibum rubs his eyes and sighs.  _ oh woohyun _ , he thinks sadly.  _ if it really were because the both of you were soulmates, how come you weren’t taken too? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr @ kuroophyll !!
> 
> comments, kudos are always greatly appreciated :-)  
> (especially comments, i LIVE for comments)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kikwang, already one step ahead, has phased through the wall and knocked out the four guards patrolling the area, and their bodies are contorted into shapes spelling out “YMCA.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm...... done????? this is the last chapter???????/ there are a lot of unanswered questions being left behind in this fic, but that is because i will be writing another(!!!) fic in continuation to this. i split it up into two instead of keeping it all as just one fic because the next fic will be largely focusing on dongwoo and kibum rather than wooyeol.
> 
> as always, thank you for your comments and support - they really mean so much to me esp when i was struggling to hammer down the finer points of the plot!!

doojoon and company begin coming around to  _ infinite infusions _ almost every day, clad in their typical all-black, leathered garb. myungsoo sniggers when they walk in for the first time, and only a well-placed elbow to the ribs from woohyun stops him from making a snarky comment under his breath. knowing BEAST, they’d probably be able to hear everything within a one-mile radius. they claim a table for themselves at the back of the shop in an attempt to remain as inconspicuous as possible, but predictably, end up attracting a lot of stares anyway. eunji, a regular, snorts when woohyun asks about the growing interest in the boys.

“what do you  _ think _ , oppa? there are four handsome, mysterious guys who just appear in this little teashop every day for a week, they’re on good terms with howon-oppa, who’s like the grumpiest, most intimidating person alive. of  _ course _ people will talk.”

myungsoo, who had been listening in, humphs and turns away, muttering something under his breath as he bad-temperedly wipes down the counters and puts away a few spare mugs.

“what’s gotten into myungsoo-oppa today?” whispers eunji, looking curiously at woohyun.

woohyun’s grin widens and he doesn’t deign to reply. let myungsoo do the talking when he’s finally gotten his wits about him.

 

****

 

of course, howon cackles when he finds out about BEAST’s sudden popularity in the little teashop. eunji had cornered him just as he was leaving, dragging him to a nearby table to question him about the boys. instead of replying, howon takes her by the hand and plops them both down in the booth that BEAST have taken up.

two hours and multiple cups of tea later, they seem to have become fast friends. eunji, a magic user herself, had perked up when howon and her had gotten close to the boys.

“are they combat magic users?” she whispers to howon, who nods with a grin. trust eunji, whose skill is combat misdirection, to recognise those who carry largely similar magics to hers.

when kikwang pulls her into a one-armed hug before they leave the shop together, myungsoo drops a mug.

 

****

 

woohyun hasn’t been able to sleep for the past few nights, something in his gut telling him that sungyeol is facing the same issue. although he hurts to think of his soulmate suffering, he can’t help but feel overwhelmingly relieved that the other boy is still alive.

the plan to rescue him seems foolhardy and overly daring, but woohyun would gladly risk his life for a chance to be reunited with sungyeol even for a minute.

his phone beeps in his hand.  _ we leave tomorrow _ . _ -dj _

 

****

 

they sneak in through a side gate set into a secluded section of wall that kikwang had located during his recon “mission” earlier. kikwang, already one step ahead, has phased through the wall and knocked out the four guards patrolling the area, and their bodies are contorted into shapes spelling out “YMCA.” woohyun shoots doojoon a look, but doojoon only shrugs. “i only said he was a good fighter, not that he had a good sense of humour.”

kikwang comes up to them, grinning. “boy, these government people are really wasting their money hiring guards like these - i took them down in a jiffy!”

junhyung eyes him doubtfully. “kikwangie, that’s acting in our favour,” he murmurs. “but our plan really did work like a charm. good job, dude.”

doojoon nods grimly. “almost a little  _ too _ well, i would say. we have to act fast. woohyun, where is he?”

woohyun closes his eyes. despite the knowledge that they are committing a grave crime by even being in the government compound after dark, his heart is calm and sure.

“there,” he says, pointing towards a cluster of buildings grouped around a central circular construct. it was sufficiently out of the way and unassuming enough for kikwang to have missed it in his earlier entry into the compound, and as such, none of them had any idea about the layout of the area.

woohyun knows this, and he also knows the risks he is asking everyone to take. he turns to doojoon, saying, “i’m aware that kikwang hasn’t scouted this area yet, so wouldn’t it be better if we pull back for the night? i don’t want even more people to get hurt on my behalf.”

doojoon shakes his head. “we can’t afford to come back another day. i’m already worried that something is up. it shouldn’t be this easy for anyone to infiltrate the base.”

“plus,” yoseob pipes up, “kikwang’s already tied those guards up, so it’ll be suspicious if they were found there the next morning.”

reassured, woohyun nods and makes to continue towards his target, but doojoon yanks him sharply backwards by the collar. a shadow passes by, reflecting off the opposite wall - a guard was still patrolling, but woohyun hadn’t heard a single noise from him. surely someone who wasn’t expecting an attack would have lowered his guard enough to walk with  _ some _ noise, but…

woohyun brushes off his train of thought and refocuses on the tug of sungyeol, sungyeol, sungyeol, in his gut. the feeling had dimmed somewhat in the past few days, but now that he is here, the tugging has restarted with twice the intensity.

sensing that the coast is clear, doojoon waves him forward, and one by one, they dart through the buildings, moving with the shadows until they come to a stop in front of the one woohyun is certain sungyeol is in.

woohyun draws a shaky breath. this is it. they’re going to rescue sungyeol.

catching kikwang’s eye, he gestures to the door. the other boy nods and with a deep breath, walks into the nearest wall. the door unlocks a few moments later, and one by one, they slip in.

 

****

 

someone, probably kikwang, has located a light switch and turned it on, bathing the room in dim yellow light. after their eyes had gotten used to the sudden brightness, they look around, trying to get their bearings.

what greets their eyes is not what any of them expected. there is nobody in the room, and by the looks of it, nobody has been in here for a long time. dust covers everything, and the air is musty. papers are strewn about every available surface, but other than that, it looks for all the world like an abandoned office space whose occupants had decided to leave early and then never come back.

doojoon motions for everyone to keep moving - after all, they have yet to find sungyeol and they cannot afford to get distracted - and they walk down a dark hallway only illuminated by shafts of moonlight filtering in through the high barred windows.

unseen by anyone, yoseob hangs back to catalogue the room into his memory. the papers all bear the same red stamp and are written in archaic lettering that he cannot decipher, but he files them away in his memory anyway. he has a feeling that they may come in handy later, especially with the way this guy’s soulmate had been placed in a building marked as “defective.”

 

****

 

sungyeol is seated on the one hard chair he had found in the room when he was first brought to the building. truth be told, he was expecting something a lot worse than uncomfortable chairs and mind-numbing boredom when he turned himself in, but he’s definitely not complaining.

like he’s done for the past two weeks he’s been here, his mind turns back to woohyun. a selfish part of him twists at the memory of himself extricating his body from woohyun’s sleeping form, but he tamps it down. he wasn’t woohyun’s soulmate, not really, and woohyun didn’t deserve to tie himself down to sungyeol just because of a government-produced lie, no matter what sungyeol’s own feelings about the matter were.

his feelings for woohyun. his  _ love _ for woohyun, for someone he’d only just met a few months ago. a sick churning in his gut rising like bile in his throat as he thinks about the suffering he must have caused woohyun, because if anything, woohyun never does things by halves. when he loves, he loves with his whole heart, and sungyeol had torn everything apart in one night. but what was it worth when his time would be up in a year?

a tear slides down his cheek, and he blinks, jolting a little in surprise. since when had he closed his eyes anyway? but now that he’s alert, he picks up on a sudden sound outside his cell, something that sounds like someone cursing softly. moving closer to the door, he can hear hushed whispers and quiet footsteps, signalling to him that several people are outside the door.

instead of hiding, sungyeol moves back to his chair and plants himself into it. if the scientists are coming, they can question him all they want, but they will never have access to any of the memories he has of woohyun, which is what they are after in the first place.

the door clicks open.

sungyeol steels himself, closing his eyes.

he hears a small choked noise. opening his eyes, he sees woohyun in front of him, hands covering his mouth and tears pouring from his eyes.

 

****

 

it had been obvious which room sungyeol was in, even without woohyun’s magic. as they walked through the hallway, they come to a room simply marked as  _ Subject 4351, Lee Sungyeol _ . junhyung bends to inspect the doorknob, and within seconds, the door is unlocked and swinging inwards. kikwang pushes woohyun gently forwards, and he stumbles through the door.

seeing sungyeol in the flesh again after so long makes tears rise to woohyun’s eyes. the rest of BEAST have melted away into the shadows, no doubt giving the two of them some privacy once they have determined that there isn’t any threat concealed within the room, and woohyun steps forward.

sungyeol looks okay. definitely not the best he’s looked, like ever, but there aren’t any obvious injuries that woohyun can spot. his eyes are closed, and sudden thoughts of sungyeol being forcefully kept subdued rise to the forefront of woohyun’s mind. in his panic, he makes a noise, and sungyeol’s eyes snap open.

they look at each other for a moment, both parties holding each other’s gazes with an attempt to convey their feelings for the past weeks since sungyeol disappeared.

and then sungyeol looks away, hiding his face in his hands. 

woohyun’s first instinct is to rush towards his soulmate to hold him, but then his rational side kicks in, telling him to approach sungyeol slowly for fear of accidentally scaring him. but when he hears a muffled sob from sungyeol, woohyun tells his rational side to stick it, and rushes to where sungyeol is sitting.

as he wraps his arms around the taller boy, he feels sungyeol huddle in closer to him before suddenly tensing and shoving him away.

“why are you  _ here _ , woohyun?!” sungyeol’s voice, always on the side of screechy, cracks as he shouts at woohyun. his face is red and blotchy, and woohyun can tell by his voice that his nose is rapidly becoming blocked, but in all honesty, woohyun has never wanted to kiss someone more.

so he does.

sungyeol shuts up, going still and silent in front of him before pushing him away again.

“i meant it, woohyun, what are you doing here?” he snaps, arms protectively around himself.

woohyun shoots him a dumbfounded look. “rescuing you, of course,” he says a little confusedly, and to his surprise, sungyeol’s face crumples again.

“hey, hey, what’s  _ wrong, _ sungyeol, you’re supposed to be happy that your prince charming is here to sweep you off your feet,” woohyun jokes, injecting a little of his usual grease into his tone in an effort to make sungyeol smile.

it kind of works, because sungyeol does stop crying enough to punch woohyun hard in the shoulder, but it also kind of doesn’t, because sungyeol goes right back to crying afterwards. 

woohyun stands there a long time, arms wrapped around his sobbing soulmate, when sungyeol finally speaks. “it isn’t worth it, woohyun.  _ i’m  _ not worth it. i only have one more year left to live, so why won’t you just give me up?!”

woohyun conceals his shock at the sudden information that has been given to him, instead choosing to comfort sungyeol rather than question him. “sungyeol, whether or not you have one more year left to live, one year spent with you is worth far more than ten years of my life spent alone.”

 

****

 

they leave without any trace of them being there in the first place, doojoon calmly talking junhyung out of torching the building down. they exit unnoticed just as the first tendrils of morning sunlight begin to brighten the sky.

 

****

 

even after being rescued from the government facility, sungyeol is suspiciously tight-lipped about his impending death. when woohyun asks him about it, he only says that it isn’t his place to know, so like it or not, woohyun has to accept it as it is.

life goes back to pretty much how it was before sungyeol left, with the taller boy deciding to also take up a job in the teashop. dongwoo welcomes them back with a few tears of his own, glomping sungyeol and ruffling his hair excitedly, and everything settles down to something resembling normal.

yoseob copies down the symbols from the papers in the building, and gives them to woohyun for safekeeping. woohyun calls kibum and tells him everything, along with sungyeol’s prediction about his death as well as the strange writing, but kibum too cannot tell him much information, only leaving him with another promise to try to look into it.

 

****

 

nothing is ever announced about a government prisoner escaping.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos n comments r love, kudos n comments r life.


End file.
